Chenier Dynamics

Over the last decades, mangrove forests have suffered immense and rapid losses worldwide. In recognition of their important socio-economic and environmental functions, many attempts have been made to both protect the remaining mangrove coastlines and restore eroding sites. Unfortunately, many rehabilitation attempts have failed, lacking a...

Drivers of cross-shore chenier dynamics off a drowning coastal plain

A chenier is a beach ridge, consisting of sand and/or shells, overlying a muddy substrate. In this paper, we explore the cross-shore dynamics of cheniers in their ‘active’ phase, i.e. the phase between their formation and their landing on the shore and can no longer be reached by daily wave and tidal influences. While cheniers described in...

Chenier Formation Through Wave Winnowing and Tides

Cheniers are ridges consisting of coarse-grained sediments, resting on top of the fine sediment that forms the otherwise muddy coast. In this paper, we use Delft3D to explore how cheniers are formed through wave winnowing. We identify three phases of chenier development: (a) a winnowing phase, during which mud is washed out of the seabed...

Observations of cross-shore chenier dynamics in Demak, Indonesia

Cheniers are important for stabilising mud-dominated coastlines. A chenier is a body of wave-reworked, coarse-grained sediment consisting of sand and shells overlying a muddy substrate. In this paper we present and analyse a week of field observations of the dynamics of a single chenier along the coast of Demak, Indonesia. Despite relatively...

Managing erosion of mangrove-mud coasts with permeable dams – lessons learned

Mangrove-mud coasts across the world erode because of uninformed management, conversion of mangrove forests into aquaculture ponds, development of infrastructure and urbanization, and/or extraction of groundwater inducing land subsidence. The accompanied loss of ecosystem values, amongst which safety against flooding, has far reaching...